7 -10Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

   My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
   My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. – 2Corinthians 12:7-10 (The Message Bible)

         At 22 I stopped praying for God to heal me from having cerebal palsy,and started praying that he would use my life to bring him glory. I didn’t stop believing that he couldn’t heal me, but he revealed to me that it’s not his will to heal me of my cp in this life.It’s in our nature not to like to hear no,and I don’t always know why I must have cp but I Trust the One who allowed it.My life has been marked by hard and trying circumstances but the grace of Jesus Christ has flowed through my life to the point that leaves me breathless.Before I gave my life over to the Lord, I was heading down a dead end street that would only end in me trying to take my own life. At 21, I started believing the lies of the world. I started seeing myself as worthless,ugly, a waste,and not worthy of living. Then Jesus found me in the pit and carried me out to a new life filled with a future and a hope. He started meeting me in the pages of my Bible and my life started to make sense and started having a purpose. I’ll never forget the very first day I taught the Bible to children at my church. As I taught, I was praising God. Here I was, once a angry depressed young man teaching kids the Bible. That my friends is what his grace is all about. He takes the broken and makes them whole,he takes the old and makes them new. Since that day I first taught the Bible I been a sunday school teacher, youth pastor,and preacher. God has given me alot of chances to share with teens and adults about his love and grace. I wouldn’t change my life for anything in the world.

        As I write this my wife and I are in the process of buying our first home together. Everything I have is due to the Lord. This world wrote me off a long time ago but God is not done with me yet, and he’s not done with you either. Trust Him!

19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.-Genesis 50:19-20 (Joseph speaking to his brothers when they sold him into slavery)

     The devil meant my cp for evil against me but God is using it for good. Our you trusting God with your circumstances?